October 25, 2006

Land of Two Rivers

"Punjab" comes from two Persian words, panj ("five") and ab ("water"), thus signifying the land of five rivers (the Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, and Sutlej). The present Indian state of Punjab is the result of two divisions: a) during the partition of India in 1947, and b) during 1966, when the majority Hindi-speaking areas were separated to form Haryana. "Punjab" is a misnomer today since only two rivers, the Sutlej and the Beas, lie in its territory. Chandigarh, a union territory, is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. ♣

Cultural clichés associate Punjabis with prosperity, hard work, straight talk, tolerance, a relaxed yet enterprising spirit, stellar contributions to Indian defense, politics, media, sports, and entertainment, a huge presence in Bollywood, truck/cab driving, dhabas and Punjabi food (the best known Indian cuisine worldwide), turban and beard, a butt of ethnic jokes, and a joie de vivre that manifests itself in the exuberant song and dance routines of the bhangra. Women here seem among the freest in the north. Literacy stood at 70% in 2001, higher than the Indian average of 65%. Sikh Gurdwaras are cleaner and more charitable and welcoming to outsiders than most temples and mosques I have visited. From the road, the harsh edge of poverty is visible here far less than in most parts of India.

About 60% of Punjabis are Sikh; the rest are mostly Hindu. A lively debate continues on Sikh religious doctrine and political strategy between conservatives and liberals. Though typecast as a rustic people not into "high culture", the Punjabis are heirs to a profusion of "folklore, ballads of love and war [think Heer-Ranjha, Sohni-Mahiwal], fairs and festivals, dance, music, as well as literature, the origins of which are the mystical and religious verse of the 13th-century Muslim Sufi (mystic) Shaikh Farid and of the 15th–16th-century Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism, who were the first to use Punjabi extensively as a medium of poetic expression." ♣

Yet for all that, the Punjabis have only 793 girls to every 1000 boys up to the age of six, the worst ratio in India, whose national average in 2001 was already low (and falling) at 927 girls to 1000 boys. How does one reconcile such a high incidence of selective abortions (long banned in India) with the seemingly progressive spirit of Punjab?

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